Romelu Lukaku had quite the perfect debut on his return to Stamford Bridge, as he struck twice to help Chelsea defeat Aston Villa 3-0.
The Belgian striker was back at the stadium where it all started for him after a decade, and it was his brilliant brace that made the difference on the night.
While his first goal sent the Blues into the lead against the run of play, his second wrapped up proceedings and sealed the three points for the European champions.
Lukaku was the clinical presence up front long craved by the Stamford Bridge faithful, as he converted both of his total shots on target with conviction – summing up what ended up being a perfect return to the Bridge.
But there was only one thing that the Belgian could not do perfectly, and that was executing a perfect sliding celebration after scoring his first goal.
Just before a quarter of an hour of the match, Mateo Kovacic got the better of three Villa midfielders and sent Lukaku through on goal, to which the center-forward obliged by first sending Axel Tuanzebe to ground with a dummy – and then slotting the ball in between the goalkeeper’s legs with his right foot to send the Blues into the lead.
It was his first-ever goal at Stamford Bridge, and the club-record signing attempted to knee slide in front of the Shed End – but unlike the goal, the slide did not quite go to plan.
Lukaku’s knees got stuck in the turf and he bundled over in a heap in front of the celebrating Chelsea supporters – only for his teammates to pile up on top of him, except Marcos Alonso.
The Spaniard was honoured with the armband on the occasion in the absence of César Azpilicueta and Jorginho, and he did his duty as the Chelsea captain – rubbing Lukaku’s knees to make sure that he did not hurt himself too badly.
Alonso is himself no stranger to a celebration gone wrong as he famously slipped on the pitch after scoring his first Chelsea goal at the Bridge five years ago – and he made sure that he was there for Lukaku this time around.
Alonso surprisingly kept the armband after Azpilicueta and Jorginho came on in the second half, but he proved himself worthy of the mantle with an impressive performance along with his treatment of his teammate.
Check out Alonso’s failed celebration below –
